Discrimination complaint filed against area farm for refusing to host same-sex marriage ceremony

SCHAGTICOKE -- Two Albany women who were turned away this month from holding their wedding at Liberty Ridge Farm have filed a discrimination complaint with the state Division of Human Rights, a move that may set the groundwork for testing the extent of same-sex marriage in the state.

The couple, Jennie McCarthy and Melissa Erwin, filed the complaint soon after Liberty Ridge Farm, the planned site of their summer nuptials, refused to host their wedding. When Robert and Cynthia Gifford, the farm's owners, found out it was a same-sex couple seeking the site, they indicated the women should seek a different wedding location.

The Giffords objected to hosting the ceremony based on their religious background, said Jason McGuire, a spokesman for the farm and the executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a group opposed to same-sex marriage. He characterized the complaint as seeking to violate a property owner's right to refuse business.

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"They have religious liberty and they have freedoms in this country as well," McGuire said. "In this business ... they ought to have the opportunity to say that this is a behavior that they just don't agree with and they just don't condone on their privately owned property."

McCarthy and Erwin contend the business should not have the right to refuse certain couples based on sexual orientation. While the couple is no longer considering the farm as a wedding venue, McCarthy told the Associated Press, "We just want to know that the policy is being changed to fit the laws so this doesn't happen to anyone else."

So far, the couple has only filed the complaint, the first step in bringing litigation against the farm. If the complaint is deemed valid and a case of discrimination, officials may force Liberty Ridge Farm to allow same-sex couples the opportunity to be married at the location or forego offering weddings altogether, as well as pay monetary damages.

The Giffords could then move to appeal, at which point the case would enter the state courts.

According to Laurie Shanks, clinical professor of law at Albany Law School, it is a clear case of discrimination.

Under Article IV of the Constitution, private citizens can refuse anyone the right to entry. Under the Human Rights Law, religious institutions have the right to refuse services to anyone for religious reasons, including refusing same-sex couples the opportunity to be married on their property. However, businesses open to the public are neither private citizens nor religious citizens and cannot, under the Human Rights Law, refuse services based on sexual orientation or any other protected class, she said.

"In your own private home, your privacy trumps anything; in your own religious institution, religion trumps anything; in a public business, public policy trumps," Shanks said. Because the Giffords are offering the use of their property to the public as a marriage venue, the Human Rights Law stipulates they cannot discriminate based on any protected class.

Legally, the Giffords could claim their marriage venue business could be categorized as a religious institution. However, because the farm has not been advertised as such and is not classified as a religious institution for tax purposes, Shanks believes it is more probable they would claim that the Human Rights Law is forcing them to act in a manner inconsistent with their religious beliefs and is therefore impinging on their freedom of religion, guaranteed under the First Amendment.

There have been similar cases in the Northeast, at least one from New York. Last month, a same-sex couple in Manhattan brought litigation against a restaurant that allegedly canceled a rehearsal dinner and would not cater the couple's wedding. This occurred after a manager supposedly said he did not want any "gay parties."

And over the summer, the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vt., agreed to pay $10,000 to the state's Human Rights Commission as well as $20,000 in a trust fund for charities after being accused of refusing to host a gay couple's wedding reception.